Kanye West’s choir put an uplifting, Christian spin on two Nirvana songs, “Come As You Are” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” at the rapper’s most recent Sunday Service performance.
In a video, the choir stands in a circle and sings the Nevermind tracks while decked out in white. “Just confess/ he’ll do the rest/ Christ is here,” they sing to the tune of “Come As You Are.” Later, they replace “memoria” with “hallelujah,” chanting it over and over. They do the same for the “hello hello hello, how low” refrain from “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” while also changing the chorus to “Let your light shine, it’s contagious!”
West is a notable Nirvana fan, having previously been spotted wearing band merchandise. Courtney Love, who attended one of West’s Sunday Services earlier this summer, gave West and Kid Cudi permission to sample Cobain’s Montage of Heck demo “Burn the Rain” for their song “Cudi Montage” last year. “I’m going down as a legend, whether or not you like me or not,” he once famously boasted in an interview. “I am the new Jim Morrison. I am the new Kurt Cobain. The Bible had 20, 30, 40, 50 characters in it. You don’t think that I would be one of the characters of today’s modern Bible?”
West launched Sunday service in January, and has since used it to debut songs and perform other covers like No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak.” In April, West hosted a special Sunday Service at Coachella.